This application is based on Patent Application No. 10-036469 filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to an image recording device using a storage medium which stores image data photographed by an image photographing apparatus such as a digital camera, and using another storage medium which has a larger storage capacity than said storage medium.
Hitherto, there has been known the above-mentioned image recording device, and an image database which is constructed by said image recording device. The image database, which relates key information (code information) to image data of image files, is aimed at finding a target image based on the key information which is input in a retrieval operation. As to image data to be retrieved, it cannot be assigned the key information, so that the image recording device has text database files in which the key information consisting of retrievable text data can be stored, in addition to the image database containing the image data. The image database and text database are related with each other. In accordance with a result of retrieving an image based on the text database, the image data linked with the hit information can be displayed from the image database.
However, each of the image database and text database is managed as a separate file on an OS (operating system) level. Consequently, in an operation of transferring the file into the storage medium having a larger storage capacity, when one of the image database and text database is transferred, the other one need to be transferred separately. The file management concerning this procedure is considerably complicated and troublesome.
Further, in the image database, in view of a high probability that an image accessed even once after photographed is also accessed again hereafter, it is possible to record each operation for each image, thereby finding a desired image based on the data concerning the operation for the image. However, in this kind of the system, the key information may be stored while being unnoticed by an operator. In such a case, if all the image databases are to be transferred into the storage medium having a larger capacity, there raises a possibility that the data files containing the key information are not transferred together with the image database, which may cause trouble in the later image retrieval operations.
The present invention is made to dissolve the problems as noted above. One object of the present invention is to provide an image recording device which automatically transfers key information file which is used for retrieving corresponding images together with transferring the image data photographed by an image photographing apparatus such as a digital camera, from a storage medium into another storage medium having a larger capacity, thereby allowing later image retrieval to be executed conveniently.
In order to attain the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, an image recording device capable of recording image data and history data concerning operations to said image data which are recorded in a first recording medium into a second recording medium, comprises: a first recorder which records the image data recorded in said first recording medium into said second recording medium; and, a second recorder which records said history data into said second recording medium following the recording of the image data executed by said first recorder.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an image recording device capable of recording files in a first recording medium having a first file in which first data is recorded and a second file in which a second data corresponding to said first data is recorded, into a second recording medium, comprises: a first recorder which records said first file into said second recording medium; a second recorder which records said second file into said second recording medium following the recording of said first file executed by said first recorder; and, a delete circuit which deletes the first file recorded by said first recorder when it is impossible for said second recorder to record the second file.
According to further aspect of the present invention, a method for recording image data and history data concerning operations of said image data, which are recorded in a first recording medium, into a second recording medium, comprises: a step of recording the image data recorded in said first recording medium into said second recording medium; and, a step of recording said history data into said second recording medium following the recording of the image data.